Abstract: Joseph Stalin’s show trials, held in Moscow in the 1930s, are generally regarded by many
historians primarily as a domestic policy move designed to remove opposition. This is not the
entire picture. The trials need to be examined as part of a foreign policy maneuver designed by
Stalin as a reaction to other world events occurring at the time, including the Great Depression,
the Spanish Civil War, the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, and the threat of an increasingly
militaristic Japan.
In analyzing the reactions of the West, including sources such as journalists and
ambassadors, the individual trials of 1936, 1937, and 1938 can be more easily seen as part of
Soviet foreign policy. However, the increasing criticism and lack of support from the West
ultimately led to a failure in foreign policy on the part of Joseph Stalin.